Wonderful Husband and I have been fortunate enough to go on three trips this year: Valencia, Vilnius and now we’ve just returned from Vienna. As I’ve wrote articles about Valencia and Vilnius (check out the links above), I felt it was my vegan-duty (it exists!) to report on the vegan food I had during my stay in Vienna.

Just incase anyone has noticed, it was a massive coincidence that all of the cities we visited this year begin with ‘V’, however I am a fan of patterns, so when Wonderful Husband suggested that we visit Sevilla later this year, my heart felt a bit sad. However, there’s a rumour that the locals call it ‘Vevilla’ but don’t ask me where I heard that…

So below are a list of the places that Wonderful Husband and I dined at (in chronological order) during our trip in Vienna. Enjoy!

Café ArtySana (Valencia, on route to Vienna)

Before getting to the airport, Wonderful Husband and I managed to squeeze a quick stop to a cafe in one of our favourite districts in Valencia: Ruzafa. Cafe ArtySana was very easy to find (super close to Joaquín Sorolla station) and incredibly welcoming (they didn’t scowl at our noisy suitcases being dragged into their super quaint and quirky cafe). The walls were filled with art (as the name implies) and the menu was… *drum roll*… filled with vegan options!

We chose to have the ‘breakfast menu’, which included fruit, a glass of orange juice, a sandwich (I went with pesto, humus and cucumber), a tea or coffee AND a dessert for only €9. This café is incredible value for money and I will most definitely be revisiting for their delicious breakfast.

Swing Kitchen

After a long and tiring journey to Vienna (I hate flying and I’m a little bit dramatic), we wanted to grab something quick and easy to eat. Fortunately for us, Swing Kitchen was about 5 minutes walk away from our Airbnb and it was just what we needed: a VEGAN FAST FOOD restaurant! For €21 we got two burgers (one schnitzel and the other was a cheeseburger), a portion of onion rings, a portion of sweet potato fries, coleslaw and two drinks. A vegan fast food dream!

Swing Kitchen was very busy and it was interesting to watch the mix of people that came in, Wonderful Husband and I would try and figure out whether they were vegan. One middle-aged man in particular, sat opposite us, had a bald head, tattoos all over his arms and looked (a little bit) tough. I said to Wonderful Husband, ‘I doubt that man is vegan, he looks like you’d see him sitting next to my dad at a football match’ to which Wonderful Husband responded ‘but your dad’s vegan’. Oh yea. I need to be a bit more open-minded!

Ströck

The next day, on our way to a cycling tour, we decided to pick up some provisions incase we got hungry. There was only one bakery at the train station we were at, Ströck bakery, and can you believe it… They sold vegan sandwiches (carrot, humus and beansprout) AND A YUMMY MANGO PASTRY! 

Then I found out that Ströck bakeries were all over Vienna. Vegans, you will never starve in this city!

Xu’s Cooking

After a long day of cycling through the wine valleys of Vienna, we were hungry and a tad exhausted. I knew Wonderful Husband was craving asian food (he’s always craving asian food) so I suggested we head to Xu’s Cooking which had great reviews on both Happy Cow and TripAdvisor. Xu’s Cooking is a vegetarian restaurant but the majority of dishes are vegan. I haven’t had good Chinese food in years (ever since we moved to Spain) and my mind was blown by the memories this brought back of tucking into a yummy Chinese takeaway.

We started with spring rolls and crispy chicken pieces (which were my fav!), then we had crispy ribs (the texture was a bit weird), noodles, fried rice and their ‘Special Chicken’ dish which we adored! Check out the photo I have of Wonderful Husband loving Special Chicken haha! This place would definitely feature in my top two favourite places to eat in Vienna. 

Gasthaus Zum Wohl

It was my birthday! Wonderful Husband had planned for us to have fun by trying to escape an escape room (Fox in a Box – would totally recommend!), but before doing that we needed some brain-food and looked around for a place to grab some brunch. We found a restaurant with typical Austrian food that we were quite excited about: Gausthaus Zum Wohl. 

We didn’t want to eat anything that was going to make us feel sluggish for our adventure later, so we ordered home-made bread with olives and some spinach and pesto dumplings to share, which were yummy and perfect for the colder weather that had settled in for the day. The staff were lovely and were very happy to check whether the hot chocolate powder for my yummy hot chocolate was vegan (it was – woohoo!). 

Another plus for Gausthaus Zum Wohl is that it is next door to a 100% vegan supermarket: Maran Vegan. So after you have a nice lunch, you can go and do your shopping. Perfect!

Kardamom

Kardamom is the answer to vegan Persian cooking in Vienna. The online reviews for Kardamom are surprisingly critical, however myself and Wonderful Husband found the restaurant to be very clean, the staff to be super friendly and hospitable as well as the food to be incredibly authentic and yummy. I loved their combination of spinach and spices along with their side salad. They even made me a vegan cocktail with soy milk!

I loved this restaurant and both Wonderful Husband and I would definitely return. 

Veganista Ice Cream

After our huge plates of food at Kardamom, we decided to roam the streets of Vienna looking for some dessert. After only a five minute walk, we stumbled across Veganista Ice Cream – what a birthday treat!

There were at least 16 flavours, each one as good as the last which made it super hard to choose. Wonderful Husband chose lotus biscuit with black forest and I got lotus biscuit with green tea ice. We sat outside in cold Vienna, eating cold ice cream with big smiles because it was some of the best flavours we had ever tasted… Then we went inside where it was warm and smiled even more. 

Veggiezz

After a birthday trip to the casino (yes we totally made the casino our b****, won €10 and ran away with our profits!) success made us hungry again. It was quite late but a quick Google search told us that Veggiezz was still open so this very determined couple marched over to the restaurant. It was super busy but fortunately we got a table and the friendly waiter handed us a huge menu of vegan options. Too much choice! Brain melt down!

I chose the most yummiest, amazing club sandwich and Wonderful Husband chose their farmer’s burger. Both were delicious and I couldn’t recommend Veggiezz highly enough! My mouth waters every time I think about that club sandwich. Veggiezz is definitely in my top two favourite places in Vienna. 

Starbucks

Not really specifically Vienna, but popped into Starbucks and there was a vegan dark chocolate and hazelnut bar (totally vegan) – yummyyyyyyy! Super convenient too, thank you Starbucks!

 

Flanagans

As mentioned in previous articles, Wonderful Husband is an Arsenal supporter *sigh* and that means that our daily schedules evolve around Arsenal games *another sigh*. So as they were playing, we had to go and find a bar which was showing the Arsenal vs Fulham game (Arsenal won, obvs).

Flanagans fortunately had a vegan option for lunch, which was a salad sandwich with home-made crisps. To be fair, it wasn’t the best sandwich I’ve ever had but I am super encouraged that a sports bar would go to the efforts of adding a vegan sandwich to their menu. It can only get better from here 🙂 

Demel

Demel is *a bit of* a tourist trap… Actually, it’s just a tourist trap. We were recommended to visit Demel to try out their (non-vegan) apple strudel – don’t waste your time. Wonderful Husband and I spent at least 30 minutes queuing, to eventually be seated at a dirty table, in scruffy, stuffy and noisy surroundings. Their staff were friendly though.

On the plus side Demel do offer a vegan chocolate cake, however it was dry, tasteless and absolutely not worth the money. Wonderful Husband also wasn’t very keen on his strudel. Vegan or not, I would not recommend heading to Demel. 

Mel’s Craft Beers & Diner

Wonderful Husband has two passions: Arsenal and trying unique beers. I cannot relate to either of these passions but regardless, our next stop was Mel’s Craft Beers & Diner, famous for their wide range of craft beer… And we loved it!

As well as Wonderful Husband getting to try their beer tasting menu, the staff were were also very happy to talk to the kitchen for me and recommend a mega salad which I chose to have with a side of chips. it was yummy! Their farmers salad, filled, with lettuce leaves, tomato, croutons, apple, raisins and all sorts of other loveliness, was not only delicious but HUGE. Such a wonderful dinner to have at the end of our busy day.

Fresh & Berry – Waffles & More

On route home we decided to try some waffles (something that everyone should do if in Vienna!). We were passing Fresh & Berry – Waffles & More and decided to check whether they offered a vegan waffle… AND THEY DID! Unfortunately for Wonderful Husband, there was only enough vegan batter for one waffle (he normally avoids dairy) so I had a vegan waffle and he had a non-vegan waffle. I asked for my waffle to be covered in chocolate sauce and sprinkles, it was yummy!

Interestingly, Wonderful Husband had a bite of my waffle to compare the two and said that he preferred the vegan one as his tasted ‘too eggy’. Vegan waffle 1, Non-vegan waffle 0.

Vollpension

To end our trip, we wanted something incredibly Austrian (and healthy after all the chips and waffles) for breakfast so it made sense to head to Vollpension, known for their local, healthy, vegan options. When we got there Vollpension has a great buzz and lots of people shuffling from seat to seat, as it’s a bit of a free-for-all and you grab a seat where you can.

I went for Austrian style muesli and croissant with home-made jam and Wonderful Husband got a full vegan breakfast. Both were yummy and incredibly filling. I would highly recommend for a big Austrian-style breakfast.

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One thing to note about Vienna is that if you’re a non-smoker like me then I would take into account that Austria have not banned smoking indoors yet and it is quite off-putting if you’re not crazy keen on the smell.

Aside from the odd bit of passive smoking, Vienna is a fantastic city, full of things to do, places to see and full to the brim of vegan food. We genuinely wish we had one more additional day to spend in Vienna as it really wasn’t long enough. 

*** WORLD VEGAN DAY ***

On an unrelated-to-Vienna note, World Vegan day is coming up: Thursday 1st of November. Every year we ask non-vegans to sign up to take part in going vegan for the day (55 of my friends and family have signed up so far!). So if you fancy the challenge then make sure to go vegan on World Vegan Day and then send me pretty photos of your food so I can write it about it in my next blog post. 

Thanks for reading 💚